PERPETRATOR SEXUALLY ABUSED A MINOR FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CHILD PORN MATERIAL
APRIL 14, 2026 – written by WADE QUEEN
According to his plea agreement, in September 2024, a minor victim reported that she had been sexually assaulted by Michael Merrick, and he had taken sexually explicit pictures of her using his phone. On September 27, 2024, law enforcement searched Merrick’s phone and located the sexually explicit photos. Merrick admitted to sexually abusing the minor victim and to producing sexually explicit images of the victim in Boyd County, Kentucky.
Under federal law, Michael Merrick must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from federal prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for 25 years.
Jason Parman, First Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Olivia Olson, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Chief Todd Kelley, Ashland Police Department, jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Ashland Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Roth is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov
